Is Disney Going to Buy Netflix? Rumors Circulating

Disney owns practically everything, so it would lead us to believe that they’d be interested in making a big play at one of the biggest streaming services, right?

Rumors started circulating this week that Disney is planning on buying Netflix, and there could certainly be some truth to these musings, but it’s not quite as straightforward as these rumors might have us believe.

Interestingly, Disney already has some ownership stake in Hulu, and regularly distributes ABC content like Modern Family and How to Get Away With Murder on the platform. This might be the biggest reason the acquisition wouldn’t make sense.

On the other hand, however, Disney doesn’t offer much of their catalog to Hulu outside of the ABC shows. Netflix also has exponentially more subscribers than Hulu at this time, with an estimated 75 million compared to Hulu’s 10-12 million. Netflix is of course available around the globe while Hulu is currently only available in the United States.

The deal certainly makes sense, but Netflix wouldn’t be cheap. It’s current market value being close to 50 billion dollars. But if there’s a company capable of making such a purchase, Disney certainly would be it.

About The Author

Jacob has been blogging about the evolution of television for nearly a decade. Co-founder of Exstreamist.com he spends most of his time watching premium drama, Star Trek and waiting for someone to invent the warp drive engine.
Twitter: @kleinja

Disney NEEDS to buy Netflix, and Netflix NEEDS to be bought by Disney. That’s not fandom, that’s Needs with a big N, and it means Survival. The Big Three services are being starved out for movies by studios hoping the movie money will be in Digital VOD download–Warner, Time/Warner and Flixster in particular–and don’t see the need for “competition”. Subscription streaming can’t beat the studios, and it’s time to start joining them: Disney already has its own VOD service, but has always been friendly to loaning out its classics to Big Red, and if Hulu lined itself up with Comcast/Universal… Read more »